Haskell broke the oldest rule
THERE is an old saying in rugby which is cast in stone and is known at every level of the game from the top to the bottom, ‘What goes on tour stays on tour’. It comes from the fact that when a team tours there are a number of things that happen that are never referred to again except by those involved when alone together.
Most are just childish pranks but some like Willie John’s ‘Will there be many’ response to the threat of the police being called after a particularly riotous night by the ‘74 Lions squad has gone into the legend of the game.
Somehow I doubt the same will happen to James Haskell, who in his new book What a Flanker, and in extracts in a national paper, has chosen to break the rule by describing in detail an incident involving a young maid, Annabel Newton, that occurred during the team’s stay in Dunedin during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Even though the RFU did their best to keep it quiet, it was widely reported at the time and brought shame on the three players involved, if not the whole squad.
What started as a childish prank, stealing a walkie-talkie and hiding it in his room, turned into what amounts to a nasty sexual harassment of a young woman alone in a room with three players – Haskell, Dylan Hartley and Chris Ashton – with Haskell saying in his own words, ‘You haven’t given us an Aussie kiss, which is a French kiss but down under’.
The maid replied, ‘What does that mean?’ to which Chris Ashton said, ‘a BJ’. Hartley and Haskell told Ashton not to be so rude and he apologised but the damage was done and she reported the incident.
What seems unbelievable is that the RFU managed to negotiate a settlement that involved the players apologising and paying £30,000 to Miss Newton to stop any legal proceedings and make the whole incident disappear but Haskell thinks the RFU were wrong.
I think this is certainly an incident that should have stayed on tour.